몽골리안들은 그들의 자랑인 "징기스 칸"대제의 무덤이, 옛날 몽고제국의 어딘가에, 수많은 보물들과 함께 묻혀 있을것으로 생각은 하면서도, 그무덤의 위치가 발견되지 않고, 지금처럼 전설로만 남아있기를 원하고 있다고 한다.
우리 일행은 한잔의 소금기있는 우유가 섞인 차(Tea)한잔으로 목을 추기면서, 뛰어다니는 말들과 염소들을 스냅사진들로 찍기위해 그들 특유의 원형텐트에서 생활하는 몽골유목민의 가정을 방문했다. 가끔씩은 몽골의 Omnogovi 주의 끝없는 벌판을 차로 달리면서 잠시 쉬기를 끝도없이 하면서, 나는 생각하기를 이렇게 넓은 벌판을 말로 달렸을 것이라는 상상을 하는게 믿어지지 않았을 뿐이다.
그러나 이지역은 "징기스 칸" 대제가 말을 타고 전세계를 점령했었던 몽골나라가 아니던가. 역사는 수를 셀수도 없이, 납치,처참한 혈투,사랑 그리고 복수로 점철되여 있다. 그것이 역사이고, 전설은 그의 죽음과 함께 시작한다.
여러분들은 이런점을 생각해 볼수도 있을 것이다. 징기스 칸
.지구상에서 가장 막강했던 군대는 대륙의 어디쯤에서 호령했었을까?Where the Earth’s mightiest army roamed
. 6천년 전통의 몽골 Mongolia’s 6,000-year tradition
.허허벌판의 사막에 있었던 오아시스가 흔적도없이 사라져가고있다점.
A disappearing desert oasis
징기스 칸의 시대에는 그의 영토는 태평양에서 부터 서쪽으로 카스피안해(Caspian Sea)까지였었다. 전설에 따르면 그는 죽음에 임박하여 엄명하기를 무덤은 아무도 모르게 비밀로 해줄것을 당부했었다고 한다. 죽음을 슬퍼한 병사들은 그의 시체를 그의 고향 몽골로 옮기면서, 앞에 길을 막으면서 걸리적 거리는 자들은 모조리 몰살시켰다고 한다. 병사들은 마침내 장례를 치른후 1,000마리의 기마병정들은, 무덤의 주변에 흩어져 있는 흔적들을 없애기위해 그위를 달리면서 남아있던 흔적을 완전히 없앴다고 한다. 그후로 800년이 지났지만, "징기스 칸"의 무덤은 그흔적조차 없다.
징기스 칸은 단순히 몽골제국의 위대한 영웅이다. 그러나 서방세계에서는 그가 정복한 광활한 점만을 생각한다. 그러나 몽골사람들은 그가 정복한것 외에 더 크게 생각하는것은 그가 창조해낸것을 더 중시한다.
몽골제국은 동양과 서양을 연결시키면서, 실크로드를 번성시킨것이다.
그의 통치는 외교의 면책권과 종교의 자유 개념으로 고이 간직되고 있는 셈이다. 또한 그는 의지할만한
우편제도와 종이화폐를 사용하는 제도의 기초를 만들었다. 징기스 칸은 단순히 세계를 정복하여 지배한것뿐만이 아니고, 그는 정복한곳에 문명의 개념을 전파했다고 볼수있다.
Foreign-led expeditions have pursued the grave through historical texts, across the landscape and even from space ‒ National Geographic’s Valley of the Khans Project used satellite imagery in a mass hunt for the gravesite. But most interest in locating the tomb is international; Mongolians don’t want it found.
It’s not that Genghis Khan isn’t significant in his homeland ‒ quite the reverse. His face is on the money and on the vodka; he probably hasn’t been this popular since his death in 1227. So it can be difficult for outsiders to understand why it’s considered taboo to seek his grave.
Genghis Khan did not want to be found
The reluctance is often romanticised by foreign media as a curse, a belief that the world will end if Genghis Khan’s tomb is discovered. This echoes the legend of Tamarlane, a 14th-Century Turkic-Mongolian king whose tomb was opened in 1941 by Soviet archaeologists. Immediately following the tomb’s disturbance, Nazi soldiers invaded the Soviet Union, launching World War II’s bloody Eastern Front. Superstitious people might call that cause and effect.
But Uelun, my translator, was having none of it. A young Mongolian with a degree in international relations from Buryat State University in Ulan-Ude, Russia, she did not seem superstitious. In her opinion, it is about respect. Genghis Khan did not want to be found.
“They went through all that effort to hide his tomb,” she pointed out. Opening it now would violate his wishes.
This was a common sentiment. Mongolia is a country of long traditions and deep pride. Many families hang tapestries or portraits of the Grand Khan. Some identify themselves as ‘Golden Descendants’, tracing their ancestry to the royal family. Throughout Mongolia, the warrior remains a powerful icon.
The search for Genghis Khan’s tombBeyond cultural pressures to honour Genghis Khan’s dying wish for secrecy, a host of technical problems hinder the search for his tomb. Mongolia is huge and underdeveloped ‒ more than seven times the size of Great Britain with only 2% of its roads. The population density is so low that only Greenland and a few remote islands can beat it. As such, every view is epic wilderness. Humanity, it seems, is just there to provide scale: the distant, white curve of a herdsman’s ger, or a rock shrine fluttering with prayer flags. Such a landscape holds on to its secrets.
Dr Diimaajav Erdenebaatar has made a career overcoming such challenges in pursuit of archaeology. Head of the Department of Archaeology at Ulaanbaatar State Universityin Mongolia’s capital city, Dr Erdenebaatar was part of the first joint expedition to find the tomb. The Japanese-Mongolian project called Gurvan Gol (meaning ‘Three Rivers’) focused on Genghis Khan’s birthplace in Khentii Province where the Onon, Kherlen and Tuul rivers flow. That was in 1990, the same year as the Mongolian Democratic Revolution, when the country peacefully rejected its communist government for a new democratic system. It also rejected the search for Genghis Khan, and public protests halted the Gurvan Gol project.
Uelun and I met Dr Erdenebaatar at Ulaanbaatar State University to talk tombs ‒ specifically similarities between his current project and the resting place of Genghis Khan. Since 2001 Dr Erdenebaatar has been excavating a 2,000-year-old cemetery of Xiongnu kings in central Mongolia’s Arkhangai Province. Dr Erdenebaatar believes the Xiongnu were ancestors of the Mongols ‒ a theory Genghis Khan himself shared. This could mean similar burial practices, and the Xiongnu graves may illustrate what Genghis Khan’s tomb looked like.
Xiongnu kings were buried more than 20m underground in log chambers, with the sites marked above ground with a square of stones. It took Dr Erdenebaatar 10 summers to excavate the first tomb, which had already been hit by robbers. Despite this, it contained a wealth of precious goods indicating the Xiongnu’s diplomatic reach: a Chinese chariot, Roman glassware and plenty of precious metals.
Dr Erdenebaatar took me to the university’s tiny archaeology museum to see the artefacts. Gold and silver ornaments were buried with the horses sacrificed at the gravesite. He pointed out leopards and unicorns within the designs ‒ royal imagery also used by Genghis Khan and his descendants.
There already aren’t enough lifetimes for this work ‒ history is too big
Many believe Genghis Khan’s tomb will be filled with similar treasures gathered from across the Mongol Empire. It’s one reason foreign interest remains strong. But if the Grand Khaan was buried in the Xiongnu style, it may be difficult ‒ if not impossible ‒ to know for sure. Such a tomb could be hidden by simply removing the marker stones. With the main chamber 20m down, it would be impossible to find in the vastness of Mongolia.
When I asked Dr Erdenebaatar if he thought Genghis Khan would ever be found, he responded with a calm, almost indifferent, shrug. There already aren’t enough lifetimes for his work. History is too big.
A possible lead in a forbidden locationFolklore holds that Genghis Khan was buried on a peak in the Khentii Mountains called Burkhan Khaldun, roughly 160km north-east of Ulaanbaatar. He had hidden from enemies on that mountain as a young man and pledged to return there in death. Yet there’s dissent among scholars as to precisely where on the mountain he’d be ‒ if at all.
“It is a sacred mountain,” acknowledged Dr Sodnom Tsolmon, professor of history at Ulaanbaatar State University with an expertise in 13th-Century Mongolian history. “It doesn’t mean he’s buried there.”
Scholars use historical accounts to puzzle out the location of Genghis Khan’s tomb. Yet the pictures they create are often contradictory. The 1,000 running horses indicate a valley or plain, as at the Xiongnu graveyard. Yet his pledge pins it to a mountain. To complicate matters further, Mongolian ethnologist S Badamkhatan identified five mountains historically called Burkhan Khaldun (though he concluded that the modern Burkhan Khaldun is probably correct).
Theories as to Genghis Khan’s whereabouts hang in unprovable limbo
Neither Dr Tsolmon nor I could climb Burkhan Khaldun; women aren’t welcome on the sacred mountain. Even the surrounding area was once closed to everyone but royal family. Once known as the Ikh Khorig, or ‘Great Taboo’, is now the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area and a Unesco World Heritage site. Since achieving this designation, Burkhan Khaldun has been off-limits to researchers, which means any theories as to Genghis Khan’s whereabouts hang in unprovable limbo.
Honouring a warrior’s final wishWith the tomb seemingly out of reach, why does it remain such a controversial issue in Mongolia?
Genghis Khan is simply Mongolia’s greatest hero. The West recalls only what he conquered, but Mongolians remember what he created. His empire connected East and West, allowing the Silk Road to flourish. His rule enshrined the concepts of diplomatic immunity and religious freedom. He established a reliable postal service and the use of paper money. Genghis Khan didn’t just conquer the world, he civilised it.
Genghis Khan didn’t just conquer the world, he civilised it
He remains to this day a figure of enormous respect ‒ which is why Mongolians like Uelun want his tomb to remain undisturbed.
“If they’d wanted us to find it, they would have left some sign.”
That is her final word.
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